TELL ME ABOUT IT: Naish Psycho Nvision

So, what does the Psycho Nvision bring to the party?!

The Psycho is our Big Air kite in the Nvision range to sit at the top of the Big Air game. It is 100% dedicated to jumping and looping, giving riders of any level confidence to progress their riding. We basically decided we needed a five-strut, performance Big Air kite in the lineup. It was highly requested by our network of industry experts and working it in with our Aluula partnership, we were able to create something that goes bigger than anything we’ve made before.

Would the average rider get on with the Psycho or is it for advanced riders only?

Initially the kite was targeted towards our team riders and others pushing the limits of Big Air, but creating a kite which depowers well, heli-loops with ease, and has confidence-inducing kiteloops, your average rider feels the benefit even more than the pros. Many older or less experienced riders who we conduct testing with found that they got their biggest jumps and softest landing on the Psycho, and I even had some people commit to their first proper loops on the kite as well. This is something that might not be super evident with the naming of the kite, but upon first use, everyone will feel their confidence rise.

And does it cross over to other disciplines?

Obviously, as it is specifically designed for Big Air, we don’t recommend buying this kite if you’re looking at other disciplines. If you are more of an all-around rider, you would want to look towards the Pivot or Pivot Nvision. That being said, it is still an easy-to-use kite; the Helium airframe ensures that it can fly well in light winds and gives it some drift too. So there is no saying you can’t have a great time cruising around, kite foiling or even hitting some waves with this kite.

Talk us through its shape and design that makes it such a Big Air beast.

We have based the kite around the Aluula GC-82 composite material for the airframe (leading edge and struts), meaning the kite can be designed in a different way from the get-go. This is the first time we have done this, with the process usually being redesigning a Dacron kite to work with Aluula. So, we began with a small-diameter leading edge and a high-aspect five-strut design. With the aspect ratio being near five, it is the highest aspect kite in our lineup. We kept the arc fairly closed to give a fast steering kite and made the bridle system fixed, meaning no pulleys are needed. This takes a lot more fine tuning – if you add pulleys you can let the kite find its own sweet spot, but you then lose the crisp, direct feel of a fixed-bridle system, which is what we felt this kite deserved and needed.

The sweep of the kite is initially quite low, with it increasing into the wingtip. This is to ensure the bridle sits far forward, allowing you to depower in front of the kite’s center of effort. This also ensures that the kite can surge forward quickly, providing vertical takeoffs and instant recovery from kiteloops. You will notice this especially when looping the 10m for example, a size which generally would not be something easy to loop, becomes safe and predictable through kiteloops.

You brought out the Pivot Nvision recently. Did you carry any design attributes across from that to the Psycho?

As we started the Psycho from scratch, the two kites do not share a whole lot of similarities in terms of feel and design. The GC-82 airframe is featured on both kites, giving incredible balance and efficiency through the sky. They also both feature our Quadtex Canopy which paired with the GC-82 gives you the perfect balance of weight and strength/longevity, outlasting anything on the market. We also learnt a lot about the construction of Aluula and the properties of the material across both kites, so that is something they share as well. But in general, the two kites are completely different.